The tenor-saxophone took a little while to be accepted in jazz. Unlike the alto-sax and C-melody which were considered lead instruments, the tenor did not begin becoming significant until at least 1923 when Coleman Hawkins debuted with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. It had been used as a novelty instrument prior to 1920, most notably as part of the all-saxophone a capella group The Six Brown Brothers.
Isham Jones played some pretty decent tenor with his bands starting in 1920 but eventually gave it up in favor of composing and leading bands. Otherwise, Hawkins was largely alone as he developed his own large sound and harmonically advanced style, working with Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds during 1921-23 and then with Henderson for over a decade.
Particularly after he developed smoother phrasing (inspired by Louis Armstrong during his stint with Henderson), Hawkins was recognized as the first great jazz tenor-saxophonist. While the tenor rose in popularity, until Lester Young arrived in New York in late-1936 with Count Basie’s band, virtually every tenor-saxophonist (including Ben Webster and Chu Berry) sounded like a close relative of Hawkins, except one.
Bud Freeman always had his own sound and style. While he was never the dominant influence that Hawkins was, he
